By Katrina Timlin – Special to CNN
Few would argue against the need to improve U.S. cybersecurity, but the current partisan divide on how to accomplish this goal threatens to stall much-needed legislation in this area. On February 14th, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced the Cybersecurity Act of 2012, a bill that aims to improve US cyber defense, clarify responsible government oversight authorities, raise issue awareness, and promote information sharing between the private sector and the government. Citing the rapidity with which this bill was brought to the floor and its “prescriptive regulations,” seven GOP senators are seeking to delay this bill and will propose their own cybersecurity legislation on February 21st. The legislative progress on cyber defense is now stalled, and further delays could prove damaging to U.S. economic and national security.
The main impetus for cyber legislation is not some future “Cyber Pearl Harbor”, but the current proliferation of espionage and hacking that erodes U.S. economic and military competitiveness. In an opening statement before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee discussing this cyber legislation, Senator McCain cited a report that claimed attacks on government agencies have risen over 650 percent over the past five years. There is bipartisan consensus about the frequency, growth, and severity of cyber breaches.
Although private sector statistics of cyber incidents are difficult to obtain, it is safe to assume most multinational corporations are similarly threatened by cyber attacks. Even the most technologically advanced U.S. companies, such asGoogle and RSA, a network security company, have been hacked and lost valuable information.
These breaches show that no one is immune: the current cybersecurity infrastructure, based on voluntary security measures and marginal incentives, is woefully inadequate. The sum of exploitable vulnerabilities in U.S. critical infrastructure, financial, and defense contracting companies undermines U.S. national economic competitiveness. This is not a hypothetical or apoplectic assertion - weak cybersecurity has enabled U.S. adversaries to pilfer sensitive military technology and obtain information in advance of global summits, eroding America’s economic, political, and military strength.
Read the full article here: http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/24/partisanship-jeopardizes-u-s-cyber-defense/
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